Cutting and stapling mechanism for printing machines



March 26, 1935. c. G. QUICK/ET AL CUTTING AND STAPLING MECHANISM FOR PRINTING MACHINES Filed Sept. 22, 1932 --F'lG.2.--

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@04 @wf'ztg- UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CUTTING AND STAPLING MECHANISM FOR PRINTING MACHINES Application September 22, 1932, Serial No. 634,440 In Great Britain September 22, 1931 12 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in the cutting and stapling mechanism employed in printing machines.

In such mechanism, the stapling mechanism is usually carried by a cylinder which is separate from the cutting cylinders, one of which is usually referred to as the knife cylinder and carries the cutting knife and the other of which is usually referred to as the gutter cylinder and is adapted to receive the knife during the operation of cutting. The gutter cylinder frequently, especially in newspaper and like rotary presses, also forms a folding cylinder and has sheet taking pins and folding blades which latter deliver sheets from the pins to folding rolls.

The main object of the present invention is to provide an arrangement which will enable a separate cutting cylinder so to be replaced by a stapling mechanism included in the cutting mechanism that the conversion can be effected comparatively cheaply and quickly and without requiring additional knives.

According to the present invention the staple carrying member or members is or are carried by the normal knife cylinder and in the preferred form, the staple carrying member or members is or are extended to cooperate with a horn which is displaced from the periphery of the knife cylinder 9. distance such as to provide clearance for the cutting knives. In other words, the stapling pitch line is displaced from the periphery of the knife cylinder to a. point which provides the necessary clearance for the knives.

Such an arrangement would necessitate the replacement of only one of the two cutting cylinders and would only require the gutter cylinder to be provided with the usual stapling dies and a flat on its'periphery, to receive the extended staple carriers; such a conversion would obviously be considerably cheaper to effect than the known arrangement and could quickly be effected as for example, in the idle period during successive press runs, the replacing cylinder and horn would require little if any more room than that taken by the displaced knife cylinder. Moreover, the ability of the gutter cylinder to function as a folding cylinder and the knife cylinder to function as a collecting cylinder when not stitching as in the normal practice remains unimpaired.

In order to provide a support for the extended staple carrier or carriers, the cutting cylinder is preferably provided with a local peripheral enlargement or projecting portion in which the extremity of the carrier is slidably mounted.

The means for effecting the operation of the carrier or carriers so that a length of wire is taken thereby from a wire magazine and the length of wire caused to travel along the horn so as to be bent to form a staple, may be of any known kind and may consist either of a bell crank lever which is pivotally connected to a carrier and is rocked by a stationary cam, or an am also rocked by a cam and having a tooth which enters a recess formed in a carrier.

In order to prevent the staple from rolling over as it contacts with the webs to be stapled, the carrier is located in its cylinder so that its supporting face, which determines the position of the staple, is radial with respect to the axis of the gutter cylinder at the moment of contact between the staple and the webs, i. e. so that the staple is presented to the webs at right angles to the surface thereof. The staple is also supported within the horn until it engages the web.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 is an end elevation and Figure 2 a detail sectional view to a larger scale. v

1 is a knife cylinder and 2 a cooperating gutter cylinder, the knife cylinder being provided with a knife 3, and the gutter cylinder being provided with the usual cooperating gutter for the knife.

The cylinder 1, in addition to forming the knife cylinder also constitutes a stapling cylinder and is provided with staple carriers 4 which take a strip of staple wire from a feed mechanism of any known kind and cooperate with the usual fixed horns 5 to shape the strip of wire into a staple.

In order to enable the combined cutting and stapling function to be effected by the one cylinder 1, the pitch line along which the staples are formed and inserted into a number of webs (indicated at 6) is displaced as shown from the periphery of the knife cylinder to a distance sufficient to provide clearance for the knife 3. To effect this, the horns 5 are displaced radially so as to provide the necessary clearance for the knife, and the carriers are extended to cooperate with the displaced horns. In order to provide a support for the extended portion of the carriers the cylinder 1 is provided with a local enlargement 7, and in order to enable the gutter cylinder 2 to accommodate the extended carriers and the local enlargements 7, the gutter cylinder is provided with a flat surface or cut away portion 8.

It will be seen that with an arrangement according to this invention only an existing knife cylinder need be replaced to convert an existing machine, the gutter cylinder merely being required to have the flat surface 8 formed therein and to be provided with the usual stapling dies indicated at 9; these dies may be of any known kind and are preferably adjustable in a circumferential direction in any known manner.

Such a conversion would be cheap and quick to effect. The ability of the gutter cylinder 2 to act as a folding cylinder remains unimpaired, while the knife cylinder 1 can also function as a collecting cylinder, the cylinder being provided for this purpose with collecting pins 10.

The operation of the carriers 4 can be effected in any known manner but preferably each carrier is recessed at its inner end to receive a tooth 11 formed on a block 12 secured to a shaft 13 which is rocked by a cam (not shown), the'block's 12 being loaded by return springs-14.

It will be seen that the supporting faces 15 of the carriers are radial with respect to the axis of the gutter cylinder at the moment that the staples are moved into contact with the webs so that the staples are presented to the webs at right angles to the surface thereof; such an arrangement prevents the staple from rolling over as it contacts with the webs. It will also be seen that the staples are continuously supported by the horn until they engage the web.

The pitch of the staples may preferably be adjustable by well-known means not forming a part of the present invention.

It will be understood that the term cylinder" in the specification and in the appended claims is employed in the sense which it has in the printing trade and does not refer to the geometrical definition.

It will be understood that the invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof, and it is therefore desired that the present embodiments be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, reference being had to the appended claims rather than to the foregoing description to indicate the scope of the invention.

What we claim is:

1. The combination of a knife cylinder having at least one staple-carrying member extended outwardly of the periphery of the said cylinder and beyond a knife thereon, throughout each revolution of the cylinder, with a staple forming member arranged adjacent thereto but providing clearance for said knife.

2. The combination of a knife cylinder having at least one staple-carrying member 'extended outwardly of the periphery of the said cylinder and beyond a knife thereon, with a staple forming member arranged adjacent thereto but providing clearance for said knife, and in which the said cylinder is provided with projections to support the extended carrier or carriers.

3. The combination of a knife cylinder having at least one staple-carrying member extended outwardly of the periphery of the said cylinder and beyond a knife thereon, with a horn arranged adjacent thereto but providing clearance for said knife, said staple-carrying member being arranged to present staples to webs at right angles to the surface of said webs, said cylinder being provided with projections to support the extended carrier or carriers.

4. In a device of the character described, the combination of a cylinder and a coacting horn with a staple-carrying member arranged on said cylinder and projecting from the periphery therecutting means secured on the said cylinder, and

theninaintaining said staple at an extended position while being inserted in a product.

6. In a device of the character described, the combination of a cutting cylinder having a knife, staple-forming mechanism comprising a horn arranged adjacent said cylinder, and a staple-carrying member extended beyond the said cutting cylinder throughout and after a staple-forming and driving operation, said staple-carrying member being perpendicularly positioned to a web to be stapled at the moment a staple carried by said staple-carrying member contacts the said web.

7. In a device of the character described, the combination of a cutting cylinder having a knife and a coacting cylinder having a knife receiving abutment, with a staple-carrying member extended beyond the said cutting cylinder, said staplecarrying member coacting with a staple forming member arranged adjacent the cylinder but providing clearance for said knife, and means including a recessed portion on the said coacting cylinder for accommodating the staple-carrying member while permitting the application of a staple carried by the staple-carrying member to a web adjacent both of said cylinders.

8. Stapling mechanism comprising a cylinder having a cutting knife thereon, a horn located beyond the path through which the edge of the cutting knife passes, a staple-carrying member cooperating with said hom to form a staple, said staple being adapted to be maintained in engagement with said horn during its movement until driven into the product to be stapled.

9. stapling mechanism comprising a cylinder I having a cutting knife thereon, a horn located beyond the path through which the edge of the cutting knife passes, and a staple-carrying member cooperating with said horn to form a staple and move same through a path beyond that through which the cutting knife edge passes and also drive said staple, into the product to be stapled, while within said latter path.

10. stapling mechanism comprising a cylinder having a cutting knife thereon, a horn located beyond the path through which the edge of the cutting knife passes, a gutter cylinder arranged to cooperate with the cutting knife cylinder and having a flat face thereon, a staple-carrying member cooperating with said horn to form a staple and move same to a stapling position substantially perpendicular to the flat face of the gutter cylinder, whereby staples are driven straight into the web sheets and are prevented from rolling over.

11. Stapling mechanism comprising a cutting cylinder having a cutting knife thereon, a gutter cylinder, a horn located beyond the path through which the edge of the cutting knife passes, and a staple-carrying member in the cutting cylinder cooperating with said horn to form a staple, said staple-carrying member being movable to drive a staple at a point within the periphery of the gutter cylinder.

12. stapling mechanism comprising a cutting cylinder having a cutting knife thereon, a horn located beyond the path through which the edge of the cutting knife passes, a staple-carrying member cooperating with said horn to form a staple, and a gutter cylinder having a clinching suriace positioned at a distance from its axis substantially'less than the radius of the cylinder, whereby said staple is driven and clinched without retracting the staple-carrying member into the cutting cylinder after a staple is formed. 5

CECIL GEORGE QUICK. DONALD BALL. WILLIAM ARNOLD WHITEHEAD. 

